With Hindsight
by MeerkatJo
Summary: Mary, Anna and Mrs Hughes contemplate how they should've seen it coming. They should've seen what was really happening between Sybil and Branson. Doesn't actually contain S and B, but it talks about their relationship.


Mary should've seen this coming.

As she listened to her baby sister explain her intentions to travel to Dublin and marry the chauffeur, she couldn't help feel the guilt building up inside of her. She'd known about the whole affair for quite a while now and although she couldn't take the blame for what had happened, she definitely felt the regret of not going and telling papa as soon as she realised. She could've had him fired if she'd just been honest and not fallen in to the tempting trap of keeping yet another secret. Sybil never would've given him up, she thought to herself. Her baby sister is headstrong like that and if she said that she'd stay true to him, she would. How she ever fooled herself into believing she'd wake up she had no idea. She tried to remember when it was that she first started to notice something between them. Maybe not romance, but some kind of connection. Was it when she stumbled across the two of them having a private conversation out by the garage in the yard? Was it the way they were standing too close to each other for it to be just an ordinary conversation between a Lady and her chauffeur? Was it Sybil's blatant lies when she asked her what they were talking about? Mary thought that maybe that was the moment it became as clear as day to her what had been going on, but she remembered something else. Something that happened a long time ago it seemed, where she should've have paid attention to the signs.

"She's not badly hurt is she?" Mary remembered the worried tone of Branson's voice as he asked her about her sister's health after the incident at the count.

"Thank God" The relief in his voice when she answered that she didn't think so seemed to show his inner feelings in a far too obvious manner, now she was looking back with hindsight. At the time she supposed that his relief was over the fact that there was still a glimmer of hope he wouldn't lose his job, but they both thought that he would lose his job anyway. Why would her safety be such a relief to him if he was going to be fired? Of course she knew the answer now, but why she never noticed that guilty look on his face, the concern in his eyes, the conflicting emotions he must had been feeling. She heard Sybil's attempts to keep his job safe, but she never thought that they were fuelled by anything other than her own guilt. She must have been blinded by the lingering look Sybil gave Matthew when he helped her up from the couch earlier that evening. Mary assumed her sister had just realised the same feelings for their cousin that Mary herself had felt that day. How wrong she was.

* * *

><p>Anna should've seen this coming.<p>

She sat in the kitchen pondering to herself, just moments after Branson had left staff dining room probably for the last time. Carson ordered the room to calm down again after the furore of the young man's announcement. The note on Sybil's floor said everything. It may not have contained any declaration of love, but the fact that the chauffeur had written a letter to her, apologising for what he was about to do was enough to tell anybody that there was something going on between us. However, they had been so blind; caught up in the moment by trying to stop what he was about to do that nobody stopped to think about why. It all seemed so obvious to Anna now. The way his face would subtly light up and he would go all quiet when she'd told him below stairs that Lady Sybil needed him to drive her somewhere, and only Lady Sybil. The way he paced around the staff corridors that evening when she came home with blood on her clothes from the riot, like an expecting father. If only she had noticed earlier, she might have given them advice on how to go about telling everyone, she could've warned them about the danger of running away like a thief in the night. She knew that they both respected her and that she was a loyal friend. She wanted to see them happy and that was the truth of it, but maybe if she hadn't of been so blind, she could've helped them avoid the difficult position they found themselves in now.

* * *

><p>Elsie should've seen this coming.<p>

As she sat in her favourite chair in her sitting room, she replayed the conversation she had just had with Mr Carson in her head, and wandered how she didn't predict all of this would happen.

_Knock knock_

_Elsie jumped in her seat at the sound before hollering a short, "Come in." Carson walked in and stood before her, completely silent, almost dumbstruck. He fiddled with his cuff links and looked down at the floor as she asked, "Mr Carson, whatever is the matter? You look like you've just witnessed a murder!" She was only joking and she hoped she would get at least a smile from this pale white figure._

"_Hm? Oh, I'm sorry Mrs Hughes. If only I had," He mumbled, "if only I had." He turned to leave but was stopped by her insistence._

"_Please Mr Carson, sit down! You are not well. Now come and sit down and tell me what it making you look so ill." He did as she asked and sat down in the chair opposite to her._

"_I have just witnessed something truly terrible in the Drawing room this evening. Mr Branson just walked in, and he and Lady Sybil…announced their engagement." Mr Carson tried to gulp back the horrible thought as Elsie gasped. She honestly couldn't believe what she had heard and considered questioning whether he was telling the truth, but why would he? "The lack of total disregard for standards and decorum was completely unacceptable! I mean, how could they even dream of doing such a thing? He's a chauffeur and she is_"_

"_A Lady? Yes, I am aware of that Mr Carson!"_

As Elsie remembered, she to think of how she could have avoided this awfully heartbreaking situation. She had always had a soft spot for Lady Sybil, and had secretly supported her in her support for women's rights. Elsie wasn't the unchangeable old woman everybody thought she was, and she certainly wasn't as unchangeable as Mr Carson. She had always hoped that Lady Sybil would find someone who valued her causes as much as she did and would love her for it, however unlikely it was. Only now she had, and she pitied the poor girl. She pitied her for falling in love with someone so beneath her in the class system, someone who her family could never approve of, and now she would have a broken heart. If only she had known, then she could've warned her of giving her heart away to him. Had she already warned her though? Or was that someone else? Elsie's mind was cast back to the garden party on that awful day war was declared. She had noticed the group hug between Lady Sybil, Branson and Gwen. She'd noticed the way he delicately laced his fingers between hers; the way she responded by holding his hand back. She noticed the shared look between them as he almost whispered to her,

"I don't suppose that_"

She warned him, and yet she paid no attention to the warning herself. Lady Sybil was not one for following tradition, and there she was, holding his hand. She had just thought that it was nothing more than a crush on the young lad's account, not something that could grow to be so much bigger, certainly not a marriage. Then she remembered the note. How, after all she had seen between them that day, not pay attention to the hidden meaning behind the note Anna had found? They had all been blinded by what he was doing, she was blinded by the class differences…and now there was no way she could help the poor girl. She pitied her, although deep down, she knew she need not. She knew they were both fighters, and would never give up if they were truly in love. Maybe her warnings weren't needed after all.


End file.
